Where’s My Order?
It’s the classic annoyance of the e-commerce revolution. You placed an order online a week ago, and you still haven’t received it.
Although there are no guarantees when the shipment will land on the doorstep, there are a few basic strategies to limit your wait beside the mailbox.
First, you need to understand that according to Federal Trade Commission regulations, online merchants are responsible only for shipping--not delivering--a product within a certain amount of time.
A merchant that guarantees shipment within 72 hours, for example, is required only to mail an order in that time. Because delivery is not factored in, the order will not arrive for several days after that.
Or even several weeks. By law, a retailer that does not offer a specific shipping time has as much as 30 days after receiving an online order to mail the merchandise.
In either case, if there is a delay, the merchant must notify the customer within the window it agreed to ship.
“You must ship in the time you promised the consumer,” said Heather Hippsley, assistant director of the FTC’s enforcement agency. “If you cannot, you must give them the option to cancel their order.”
Although most retailers advertise their shipping times, consumers should check with the merchant--even after completing a purchase--to ensure that it follows through with its shipping claims.
Many merchants send confirmation e-mails after a sale, detailing when the order will be shipped. Consumers often ignore these notes, but they sometimes contain revised shipment dates.
They might even inform a customer that an item is out-of-stock--even if that individual has already purchased it.
Some sites, such as REI’s (https://www.rei.com), have “real-time inventory checking” so that only items that are in stock are featured online. However, with multiple individuals shopping on a site at any given moment, an item might sell out before the order is fulfilled.
When a customer places an item in an online shopping basket, it is still available for other individuals to purchase. If the customer waits to buy it, someone else might come along and snatch it up first.
“It’s not ideal, but it’s the current limits of the technology,” said Jennifer Lind, REI spokeswoman.
Waiting for the item to come back in stock could take several days, but even those who are able to get what they want should be absolutely certain about their purchase before placing an order. Changing an order can lead to longer delays.
Depending on the time an order is scheduled to ship, customers might have only a few hours to correct it. With 24-hour shipments, Amazon.com customers usually have two to six hours after submitting an order to make a change. “You better make up your mind when you click the button because you’re usually going to commit to it,” said Jim Miller vice president of Amazon’s supply chain management.
Not all sites offer such quick turnaround times, however. Because some do not process orders on weekends or after certain hours, an order submitted Friday night might not be processed any sooner than one submitted early Monday. Check retailers’ specific policies for details.
Throughout the fulfillment process, customers can usually track the status of their purchase. By submitting an order number, a customer can often find out when the merchandise shipped and when it is scheduled for delivery.
Although customers can never know for certain when they will receive their merchandise, Amazon is moving toward technology that would inform them when the product will arrive instead of when it will ship, Miller said.
But until that technology is in place, the FTC’s Hippsley recommends that consumers keep their invoices and note a retailer’s shipping agreement. If the merchant does not fulfill its claims, consumers can file a complaint with the FTC at https://www.ftc.gov.
“We’re constantly monitoring to watch for companies that don’t honor their shipment promises,” Hippsley said.
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Times staff writer Christine Frey covers personal technology.
